Ruth Spencer considers Brentwood her home base.
Her parents, together for 50 years, raised her in their first, and only, house on Castlewood Drive West. Her family became intertwined in the fabric of their neighborhood — to the point she considered the Ramseys next-door as grandparents. And, when she returned from college in 2001, Spencer bought her first house on the same block.
She continued to invest in the neighborhood even after she moved to Arlington in 2017 and rented the other homes she owned for below market value to seniors who cared about the neighborhood.
Spencer watched her part of Brentwood stay mostly the same, with limited exception for one piece of land close to I-95.
The former Holiday Inn on Golfair Boulevard had closed and devolved into a “nine-story eyesore,” according to a 1998 Times-Union story. Finally, the city tore down the once-vibrant hotel, and Spencer, who had grown up looking up at the building, heard rumors for years that the bit of land could become a park or even an extension of her neighborhood for more families to move nearby.